Sorry about reviving an old thread but I thought I would add some pictures of the e-brake star adjuster location in case someone does a search for this thread

 

With an automatic I adjust the E-brake system right into the trash can.

I would love to tell ford what I think of their POS e-brake system.

 

wow thats tucked in there thanks for pic I looked not real hard but never saw that. need brake so I can warm truck up without it rolling away, its a stick .

 

The lever on the parking brake (what the cable attaches to in the rear wheel) seizes up... it needs to be replaced.

 

After reading through a lot of posts, I could not find a solid answer on which way the star was to be rotated. On my 2000 F250 SC SB 7.3 diesel the star was rotated in the downward position on both the driver and passenger side to tighten/expand the brake shoes.

 

I came across this post searching for which way the adjuster gear needed to be turned and wanted to come back to share my experience. Turning the parking brake adjuster down on both sides of my 2004 F-150 FX4 resulted in the brakes being loosened, and not tightened as others have seen. My brakes were the original brakes from the factory. However, the adjuster gear can be installed in either direction - so it's hard to say which way they were installed, especially if a previous owner or shop has tinkered with them before. Both of mine had to be turned up in order to expand the pads/tighten the parking brake towards the rotor. I would suggest taking the rotor off to inspect, as it only takes a few minutes.